Shaw (SHAW) CEO James Bernhard last week sold 0.99M of his 1.13M shares in the company after investors approved its sale to Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) in a $3B deal. Bernhard has been criticized by Denali Investors, which owns 1.1% in Shaw, for agreeing on a price that was too low. Denali wants a special committee to probe Bernhard for a possible conflict of interest, speculating that he may have political ambitions that influenced the timing the sale.

Stock investors have reacted in a subdued way to recent deals (I, II, III) for oilfield services firms that should boost the earnings of buyers, including National Oilwell Varco (NOV), FMC Tech (FTI) and Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), Tudor Pickering analysts say. Most of the targets, such as Pure Energy, have “healthy” exposure to North America, which analysts say investors "still view skeptically."

Analysts aren't sold on the $3B deal combining Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) and Shaw Group (SHAW), as the companies have seen five downgrades between them. CBI had been viewed as a high-quality, low-risk investment, but Shaw's "lumpier results and inconsistent profitability" and exposure to nuclear power adds extra risk to its business.

Suspicions of insider trading surround CB&I's (CBI) $3B acquisition of Shaw Group (SHAW) after a trader today made a big paper return on 2000 August $29 options that he or she bought bought on Thursday for $0.25 each. With Shaw's shares +55% to $41.40 the calls are worth $12.40.

Fluor (FLR+0.1%) gives back most of an early pre-market pop following the announcement earlier that CB&I (CBI-14%) was acquiring Shaw (SHAW+58%) for $46 per share - a 72% premium from Friday's $26.69 close. Other peers with similar moves on the news today: URS+1%, KBR+0.8%, JEC+0.2%, ACM+1% and TTEK+0.7%.

More on CB&I (CBI-5.4%) acquisition of Shaw (SHAW] +66%): the deal, which is worth ~$3B, will create a company with 50K employees, a backlog of over $28B, and engineering and fabrication facilities on all continents. The firm will "become fully diversified across the entire energy sector." CB&I will use both companies' cash and $1.9B in debt to finance the agreement. Shaw will operate as CB&I Shaw.